A fired police officer's desire for revenge against his former department may have been behind the deaths of a college basketball coach, a rookie public safety officer and a veteran Riverside police officer.

Two of the victims, Monica Quan and Keith Lawrence - who recently got engaged to be married - were shot to death inside Lawrence's car Sunday night in Irvine.

Riverside police have not identified the slain officer, who served 11 years with the department, in order to protect his family. A second Riverside officer was critically wounded alongside the dead lawman when the pair were ambushed while stopped at a red light early Thursday.

Quan, 28, was in her second year as an assistant coach for Cal State Fullerton's women's basketball team.

Monica Quan and Keith Lawrence

She played ball for Cal State Long Beach before transferring to Concordia University in Irvine, where she graduated in 2007.

At Walnut High School, Quan will be remembered as an inductee to the school's Hall of Fame. Quan lettered in all four of her years at the high school.

Quan coached for California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks before being hired at Cal State Fullerton.

"Here's what I want to tell you: A really bright light was put out way too soon. Somebody whose passion was impacting young women through the game of basketball has been taken away from us," Cal State Fullerton women's basketball coach Marcia Foster said at a Monday news conference.

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Lawrence, 27, was also a graduate of Concordia University and, like the woman he planned to marry, played basketball during his college years.

After college, Lawrence graduated from the Ventura County Sheriff's Academy and found a job in August as a public safety officer for USC. Lawrence was assigned to patrol work at the campus.

"During his brief tenure of service here at USC, Officer Lawrence proved to be an honorable, compassionate and professional member of our department and the Trojan Family," USC's Department of Public Safety posted in a memorial message on its website.

USC officials declined to comment.

Law enforcement officials from Los Angeles to the Inland Empire say the violence is the result of a single man's actions.

The suspect, Christopher Jordan Dorner, is a 33-year- old former Los Angeles Police Officer who wrote a 14-page manifesto in which he blamed the LAPD for destroying his life and announced that he will be suspected of committing "horrendous murders" as part of a "necessary evil" to change his former department.

There was no sign, however, that any of the people who authorities say Dorner killed were directly responsible for any of the problems that he claims led him to violence.

Quan's father, however, represented Dorner at the departmental hearing that ended in his dismissal from the LAPD.

Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz said in a news conference Thursday that neither the slain officer nor his partner are believed to have been specifically targeted by Dorner.